Tuesday, January 22, 2013

Yes, the above screengrab is a MASSIVE SPOILER. You know what? It doesn't come as any surprise whatsoever.

The Legendary Questline has progressed pretty much to form thus far: grind these raids, collect this stuff, kill these dudes. There has not been any real disadvantage to anyone who simply didn't have the time per week to complete the various tasks asked of them. However, 5.2 introduces a factor that I'd hoped at the back of my mind we'd not have to consider whilst completing this journey: the Auction House. Yes, that's FORTY Trillium Bars you'll (potentially) need to help progress (quite apart from another 20 Drops from Bosses, at least they've learnt the lesson on that and simply made it just the one type of token.)

Transmuters, it could be time to start your engines.

This patch (assuming those numbers don't change at release) could see a real payday for anyone with an Alchemist: Blacksmiths are also in the money as there's a new raw material (Lightning Steel, takes 10 Ghost Iron Bars plus Trillium as well) that will be required to make a slew of new weapons once your Server opens the Lightning Forge mentioned in step four of the Legendary progression above. Of course, this is all subject to change once things go live but I doubt that 40 bar figure will significantly drop. That's a pretty serious investment not simply in time, but for most people in cash. However, knowing this is coming is very much the kind of information that can help the canny.

How this will affect the price of Trillium and Ghost Iron on your Server is for other people with a handle on such things to consider. For me it means that I will be making a conscious effort to farm more Ghost Iron in the weeks running up to 5.2 and using my Transmute Master to start making two stacks of Trillium. I certainly don't intend on buying a single bar so this is a great opportunity to get myself into a routine and to furnish everyone with a regular mat stream to ensure that whenever I get to the stage where the Trillium is required, it is already completed as a step. I certainly won't be stockpiling anything significantly in anticipation for 5.2 (especially as my Blacksmith is still 85) but knowing these two key pieces of information has made some possible decisions on who to level next a fair bit easier.

I know some people hate spoilers, but occasionally knowing things ahead of time can be a significant boost. I'm considering this as one of those moments.

@Yoco: I have discovered this morning one of my threesome doesn't know it anyway, so I'll need to do a wee bit more discovery on that front.

I have a Potion and a Flask Specialist who aren't doing anything so it makes sense to send Ghost Iron to them as well for the task. Having looked at the stuff I'm going to need to level my Engineer, Trillium's quite high on that list as well, and I am sure the same will be true of my Blacksmith. This is the perfect way for me to wake everyone up and start organising myself to get those last two professions maxxed...

don't send it to your potion/flask specs hon - you'll be missing out on the procs from your transmute spec. It can really add up, especially if you are producing a lot of trillium! Just put your transmute specialist to crafting & go do something else for a lil while :)

Wouldn't it make more sense to send all ghost iron bars to the transmute specialist (assuming you have one, of course)?

The trillium transmute doesn't affect the living steel or other cooldowns, so a chance for extra trillium is always better, no? As said, Trillium transmute is not on any cooldown - if you have a bag full of ghost iron bars, just select the trillium transmute recipe and hit "create all" and grab a cup of coffee while watching the transmuter do all the hard work :)

And a completely different topic: seeing how you are still going for Master of All: can you check if you actually get an achievement popup once you get there? I have the achievement, but was mightily disappointed that I never got the popup for it. It just happened to be in my achievement log the next time I logged in after I got the last trade to 600...

@Nev. Yeah that proc. ^^ Not exactly earth shattering on Living Steel at any point since the Expansion began or indeed for my gems. In fact, the proc has been and continues to be depressingly small. But I take the point.

Oddly enough I picked up about 600 ghost iron bars over the weekend as the price crashed. Normally they sell for much more than the trillium I need to feed my living steel habit. Trillium needs a use. It has slowly been getting less useful for a while.BTW process rate for transmutes is same as other masteries. Just seems low because it is done less frequently. I like it though. Makes me feel happy when it goes bang.